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softball. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been married to his
wife Jeannie for 30 years and has
resided in Ada for 31.

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features
9 the Football
Official
13 He’s Sleeping in
the Dorm

departments
6 Events
15 Books
19 Classifieds

17 Man of
Opportunity

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the
football
official
by Mindy Wood

“That was
interference!
Come on, ref!”
(Heard that one before?)

Arbiter of Oklahoma Friday Nights

F

Ross’ new position on the field meant making
sure everyone abided by the rules. But what are
the rules anyway?
According to officials, most people and even
some coaches and their players do not understand
the rule differences in each league, which can
lead to some tense moments on the field and in
the stands.
“It’s true that a lot of them don’t study the
rules and don’t pay enough attention to them,”
Ross said. “The rules can be very complicated and
hard to understand at the different levels.”
The vision of Norman Rockwell’s umpire and
coach, standing nose to nose over the baseball
mound, comes to mind. It’s definitely a decadesold rivalry but one that Ross joked about.
“I think it would be a good idea to maybe even
have a coach officiate just to see what its like,”
he said.
According to Ross, officiating rules for NFL
and collegiate football are very similar. However,
in high school football the rules of the game are
different, and even differ from state to state. >

www.adahub.com

Football is an almost holy thing in American
culture.
Every year high school, college and
professional players make their pilgrimage to
locker rooms across the country and prepare for
football season with fervent anticipation. The
smell of popcorn and nachos, the brightly lit
green field and the band playing its home team
fight song bring out the kid in fans and parents
alike.
As everyone takes to the stands and gamers
gear up for fantasy football, game officials are
preparing too. Lovers of the game themselves,
officiating is often their way of staying on the
field. Lee Ross, former owner of Lee’s Pharmacy
and manager of Halo Rx, is prepared for all the
season holds.
Ross has been officiating football for 20 years
and currently works games at the collegiate and
semi-pro levels. He previously worked 20 years
as a high school official and three years in Arena
League football.
“I played for Southeastern and when I
graduated my body was worn out from the game,
but my mind wasn’t,” he said. “I’m a sports
junkie and I got into officiating to keep me in the
game.”
Ross also explored coaching and although he
turned to pharmacy, he never forgot the game he
loved so well.

“I think it would be a
good idea to maybe
even have a coach
officiate just to see
what its like.”

9

continued from pg. 9

Misconceptions are often based on watching the
big game on TV and then seeing a different picture
on the high school field.
“Basically collegiate conferences are run by
NFL officials so at the collegiate level everyone
is officiating the same way,” Ross said. “The rule
differences between the NFL and high school are a
lot different, especially in Oklahoma.
“In college rules, the quarterback can throw the
ball away to save a sack if he is outside the tackle
box, he only has to get the ball back to the line of
scrimmage. In high school, the quarterback cannot
throw the ball away to
save a sack, even if he is
outside the tackle box
and gets the ball back to
the line of scrimmage.
For pass interference
in college, you have to
have contact and the
defense can face guard
in college. In high school
you cannot. In college
the defense is not
offsides until the ball
is snapped, or he draws
an opponent across
from him out of his
stance. In high school if
the defense is lined up
in the neutral zone, it’s
a foul, the ball does not have to be snapped.”
In spite of consistent abuse from the stands
and the field, Ross keeps his cool and his integrity.
“Fans are biased on what they choose to see and
I understand that,” he said. “We try to be as fair
as possible, black and white. One team’s in red and
one teams in white and that’s the way we have to
see it.”
One challenge to remain impartial was especially
tough.
“I was calling a junior high game at Ada and it
was a holding call on my good friend’s son,” he said.
“We’re really good friends, people I sit with at the

ball game on Friday nights. After the game we
were talking and I said, ‘Hey I’m sorry but I had
to call that.’ He said, ‘No I’d be mad at you if you
didn’t call it. He tackled the guy.’ So we do have
people who really see the game like that. The only
reason we have officials is to make sure the game
is played fairly and if we haven’t done that, then
we haven’t done our job.”
With the gradual erosion of good
sportsmanship, Ross has observed how that
affects a team.
“You have to be a little bit mad to play football
but it shouldn’t control
you,” he said. “Football is
a game of eleven players
working as a team
and if they’re so mad
they can’t see straight
because the calls are
not going the way they
would like or they’re out
of control, they can’t
even run a play. We’ve
been fortunate in Ada to
have some good coaches
over the years. I’ve seen
current Coach Matt
Weber ask an official for
an explanation but he’s
not out of control and
in turn you don’t see the
team going crazy or making fools of themselves.
If they don’t win they don’t complain about every
little call that’s made. They take what’s dealt to
them and make the most of it. It really makes
me proud of our local coaches and teams to see
that.”
In addition to his love of the game, he enjoys
the kids and the camaraderie among fellow
officials. “I love being around the kids, especially
in Ada when you know the kids who are there
and their parents,” Ross said. “The camaraderie
with the crew members is great and I’ve gotten to
know people all over the country I wouldn’t have
known if I didn’t officiate.”

www.adahub.com

Injuries to the neck caused by a sudden movement of the head, backward,
forward, or sideways, is referred to as whiplash. Whether from a car
accident, sports, or an accident at work, whiplash or other neck injuries
warrant a thorough chiropractic check-up. The biggest danger with
whiplash injuries is that the symptoms can take years to develop. Too often
people don’t seek treatment until more serious complications develop. Even
after whiplash victims settle their insurance claims, some 45% report they
still suffer with symptoms two years later.

and city infrastructure.
Hargrave comes from a long line of public
servants and comes by his career in law honestly.
“Most of my family has either been involved in
education, elected office or the judicial branch,” he
said.
His father, fellow ECU alumnus Rudolf Hargrave,
was an attorney and district judge. He’s now the
senior member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court,
and has twice served as the state’s Chief Justice.
John Hargrave is an admitted member of the
Western, Eastern, and Northern Districts of the
Federal Court of Oklahoma and of the Tenth, Fifth,
and Eight Circuits of the United States Court of
Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
He said his father never forced him to follow in
his footsteps and it was at East Central University
where he realized he had a talent for debate.
“My father put absolutely no pressure on me
whatsoever to do that,” he said. “He very much is a
believer in letting your kids grow up and make their
own decisions. I had a lot of success in debate at
ECU and the thought occurred to me that it would
be a waste of the talent I seemed to have if I didn’t
pursue a career to utilize that.”
He also grew up appreciating parents who were
concerned about their community in Wewoka. >

www.adahub.com

East Central University’s new president is a man
who values the things that matter most in life.
Highly successful people are often thought to
be unapproachable as they appear in suit and tie,
decorated with titles, awards and accomplishments.
In spite of his success, John R. Hargrave is quite
the contrary. Born and raised in Wewoka and a
graduate of ECU, he has never forgotten where he
comes from.
The post at ECU is an exciting career change for
Hargrave and one that he considers meaningful.
“The business I was in takes its toll on you,” he
said. “The legal work I do is very different than the
legal work most people think about. I worked for
very big companies doing litigation only. It’s an
adversarial procedure so there’s always someone
against you. After 30 years of combat I decided to
get into something that was more constructive,
more rewarding in terms of working with young
people. I wanted to put myself in a position to try
to make the world a better place.”
Hargrave is a founder and managing partner
of Edmonds Cole Law Firm, one of the most
respected litigation law firms in Oklahoma City. He
serves on numerous boards in Wewoka, Seminole,
Oklahoma City and Ada, involved in everything
from economic development to youth programs

13

continued from pg. 13

“All of my family have been very involved in
their community whether that be professional
women’s organizations, Lions Clubs, the Masonic
Lodge and my parents are still very active in their
community,” he said.
He and his wife have been named Citizen
of the Year and Volunteer Parents of the Year in
Wewoka and recently were awarded the statewide
Oklahoma Community Service Award.
Hargrave hopes to be just as involved in the
Ada community and he’s off to a good start. He is
chairman of the Ada Art District and has already
addressed the Lions Club, Kiwanis Clubs, and the
Ada Area Chamber of Commerce.
“One of my roles as president of the university
is to reach out to the community to see how East
Central can work more closely with the citizens of
Ada,” he said.
Hargrave has personal convictions about
helping in the community.
“Not just on behalf of the institution but it’s
me personally getting involved…if I have to sell
hotdogs, sell tickets or drive the choo choo train,
that’s really not East Central doing that,” he said.
“The welcome my wife and I have received from
the faculty, staff and citizens of Ada has been
absolutely overwhelming. It’s been unbelievable
how many friends and new acquaintances have
come forward and offered to help us. ”
In spite of being acquainted with the glitz and
glamour of big city life, Hargrave and his wife
prefer the charms of small town living.
“One of the greatest joys of living back in your
hometown is living in a family atmosphere,” he said.
“When I deal with people [in Wewoka] sometimes it
might be my third grade teacher or my high school
English teacher. It’s just such a joy to go to church
with the same people you grew up around. My
mother reads the Boxcar Children and she’s read to
third graders whose parents she taught when they
were in third grade. When I was in Scouting
I Power
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Scouting with. You get those bonds and that’s the
stuff you get in a small town. I wouldn’t give it up
for the world.”
As to his plans at ECU, he’s taking the job very
seriously. This summer he lived in the dorms.
“I wanted to experience campus life firsthand,”
he said. “I thought it was appropriate for me to
understand student residential housing and the
correlation between there and their classrooms.”
Hargrave said that he was impressed with
the things that make ECU stand out from other
universities, such as a more accessible campus, the
close involvement between faculty and students,
and the fact that 68% of their teaching staff holds
Ph.Ds.
“I’ve been very pleased with the talent,
dedication and professionalism of the faculty and
staff at ECU,” he said. “They care about the students
to a level that surprised me.”
Family man, public servant, and accomplished
attorney, John R. Hargrave seems to be the perfect
fit for Ada’s prestigious university and a complement
to the values and way of life its citizens enjoy.

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books
Life Without Summer

Peak

Written by Lynne Griffin

Written by Roland Smith

Life without Summer opens
with the death of four-year-old
Abby in a hit-and-run accident
at her preschool. As part of
Tessa Gray’s therapy to help
her work through her daughter’s
death, she begins to keep a
journal. Her journal begins in the
fall with day 13 without Abby.
“There’s a thud as her little body
collides with the steel fender. No scream. Just a soft
sigh, a surprised breath inhaled as she’s lifted from the
ground only to be returned here. I hear it happen. I see
it happen. And I wasn’t even there.”
The book explores the relationship between the two
women and their efforts to accept loss, connect with
their families, and find strength, support, forgiveness
and love.
Lynne Griffin is an expert on family life, a parenting
contributor for Boston’s Fox 25 Morning News and a
teacher in the graduate program of Social Work and
Family Studies at Wheelock College and at the Grub
Street writing center.

of the
month

When Peak, a 14-year-old
thrill-seeking boy, is arrested for
scaling skyscrapers in New York
City his future looks bleak. The
authorities agree to let Peak’s,
nearly absent, father take him
away from the city in hopes of
squelching media coverage
of his climb. Peak soon finds
himself traveling with his father’s
Himalayan expedition company to Mount Everest. His
father encourages him to attempt the often-deadly
climb and become the youngest climber to reach
the summit. Along the way Peak is forced to make
decisions that reflect his growth and maturity.
Roland Smith has written a novel filled with high
adventure thrills, stories of base camps and dangers
of climbing. Survival adventure fans will find this
fast-paced story an exciting read filled with facts of
mountaineering and the realities of Everest.
2010 High School Sequoyah Nominee

to me, because I remember just a few years ago I
used to come here to hear other people sing, and
now there are people standing outside in the 100degree heat waiting to see me.
“That’s still something that’s really hard for me
to grasp,” he said. “People standing in line to see
me sing is something I’d have never thought I’d
see.”
Professionally, life has been a whirlwind for
David since his American Idol victory. Within
days, he had a dozen songs listed on the Billboard
charts, the most at one time by one artist since the
Beatles in 1964. With his songs like “Light On,”
“Come Back to Me,” and “Time of My Life,” David’s
musical future holds tremendous promise.
As thrilling as the professional ride has been,
the past year has also held heartache for David,
who lost his oldest brother, Adam, to brain cancer
this spring. The loss was devastating for David, who
cancelled a number of shows to spend time with
his family as they mourned the loss together.
“It’s been a year of growth,” David said, working
to keep his emotions in check. “Watching what
happened to my brother was awful, but he was an
amazing person. He never let it get to him, even in
the end, and I learned so much from him.
“But it was the kind of year I don’t think
anyone can imagine,” David said. “To have things
musically going so great, and at the same time to

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Finding time to laugh with friends or to play a
round of golf isn’t easy for David Cook these days.
But he manages to make time.
David, 26, was the winner of American Idol’s
Season Seven, and released a multi-platinum
album in November 2008. During his current
Declaration Tour, he played in Oklahoma City and
Tulsa, where he spent a few moments answering
questions for Ada Hub.
“It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure,” said the
Missouri native who was living in Tulsa in 2007
when he began his American Idol quest.
“If you had asked me two years ago if I ever
thought it would end up like this, I’d have told you
not in a million years. It’s fun -- a lot of fun -- but
it still doesn’t seem real sometimes. I get up every
morning thankful for the opportunities that have
been handed to me, and I don’t want to ever take
any of it for granted.”
On the morning of his Ada Hub interview, David
had played a round of golf at a Tulsa area course
and was “taking it easy” in the early afternoon a
few hours before his show at the legendary Cain’s
Ballroom. David said Tulsa, of all the cities he has
played in, holds a special place in his heart.
“Tulsa is where I came to make it in the music
business,” he said. “Tulsa is where I found myself
musically, and where this whole ride really started.
And to play at Cain’s is really something special

17

continued from pg. 17

have my brother dying in front of my eyes ... It
was a year I will never forget, for the good and the
bad.â&#x20AC;?
After spending the summer of 2008 on the
American Idol Tour, David released his solo album
in November. Sang for U.S. troops at several
USO stops and then kicked into high gear for his
Declaration Tour which has taken him to small,
intimate venues all across
the country. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a
hectic schedule, but David
said he works hard to keep
his life as â&#x20AC;&#x153;normalâ&#x20AC;? as
possible.
As much as David
enjoys performing live
and recording albums,
he has a true passion for
music videos and hopes to
get into acting in the near
future.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love the music video
part of the industry,â&#x20AC;? he
said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Come Back
to Meâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; video, it was my idea
to sing the song backwards all the way through
and then reverse it. It sounded like a great idea
to me when we started, and then I found out how
much work it was going to be,â&#x20AC;? he laughed.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;And I love acting, I always have. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve thrown
my hat into the ring and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kind of looking
around right now to see if we can find the perfect
opportunity for me to move into that arena,â&#x20AC;? he
said.
Although he has definitely become a â&#x20AC;&#x153;big
nameâ&#x20AC;? celebrity, David said he works hard to not
let the attention change his dreams or affect how
he sees the world around him.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are a lot of appearances
you have to make, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just
part of the job,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m
not the kind of person who got into
this just so I could be on the A-List
for all the big parties and things. I
donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ever want my life to get to that
point.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why I do things like I did
today, going out to play golf and blow
off some steam, and then tonight
after the show Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going out with
some old friends from Tulsa to just
laugh and have a good time,â&#x20AC;? David
said.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still the same David Cook I
was before American Idol, and I want to always be
that same David Cook. That is something I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
ever want to change.â&#x20AC;?